That’s a very specific question. I’m going to take a broader approach. We had an expert come in who has worked for many years at CMHC, Carolyn Whitzman, and she recommended that the Ontario government take a more holistic approach, where they give municipalities targets and those targets are overall targets. This is how many homes the government needs to build or that we want this municipality to build, and there needs to be some minimum thresholds on how affordable they are based on income and also what kind of square footage we’re aiming to build.

Is it government’s job to say no, every single house has to be this set size? No, but there is an acknowledgement that this government needs to make—

Interjections.

It took thousands of years for citizens to secure democratic rule—

Interjections.

Bill 39 is a direct attack on democracy because it is giving mayors the power to use minority rule, when Ontario has always used majority rule. I think you should repeal this bill.

This is just more mendacious propaganda that the opposition continues to speak about in the House. The—

You know, municipalities already do much of what Bill 23 will legislate. Numerous municipalities have existing DC or property tax incentive programs to encourage infill development or to help contribute to affordable housing. They include Kitchener, Barrie, Cambridge, Peterborough, Halton Hills, Brampton, Niagara Falls and many, many others. In fact, Toronto has provided $195 million in DC exemptions between 2018 and 2021 through the Toronto Open Door program, and the other municipality that the member knows is Hamilton, her former leader’s community, who has provided $242 million in DC exemptions between—

I didn’t have enough time to get this on the record, but again, when it comes to Bill 23, municipalities like the city of Hamilton do exactly what the bill is proposing. Hamilton has provided $242 million in DC exemptions between 2013 and 2021 for both residential and non-residential development. All Bill 23 does is codify exactly what Hamilton council already does.